UN Sec-Gen Guterres Flies To Turkey To Salvage Grain Corridor Deal

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is flying to Istanbul, Turkey this evening in a bid to push through a deal between Turkey, Ukraine, Russia, and the United Nations on opening grain corridors in the Black Sea.

• According to a UN Spox per Reuters the grain corridor deal "is not quite there yet."
• The UN official says the "situation remains fluid" and cannot elaborate on when a deal will be signed off on.
• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said yesterday that Ankara wants deal put to writing this week, after a general agreement was reached last week.
• Erdoğan: “An agreement emerged from the talks in Istanbul last week on the general outline of the process under the U.N. plan. Now, we want to tie this agreement to a written document."
• Russian President Vladimir Putin intimated that he required some concessions from the West to ratify the plan: “We will facilitate the export of Ukrainian grain, but we are proceeding from the fact that all restrictions related to possible deliveries for the export of Russian grain will be lifted.”